


Nocturne

by mythbusterposey



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - 1950s, Author thinks she knows jazz, Implied societal homophobia, M/M, Music School Runaways, Songfic, god i guess i could tag this as, just a couple dudes being gays, pianist/composer Hux, singer Kylo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 18:02:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7184378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythbusterposey/pseuds/mythbusterposey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kylo Ren and Hux have only ever danced in the dark. Scenes from a heat wave in Georgia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nocturne

There’s a toneless  _ whoof _ of air as Hux returns to the overstuffed couch he’d just left to flip the record. He’s down to his undershirt and pants, sprawled out as much as he can on the purple loveseat. Both his feet dangle off the sides, and one of his arms covers his eyes. The heat is oppressing, unbearable. His body remembers the comfortable position it’d been in before the record had started skipping the last few beats of Artie Shaw’s  _ Stop and Go Mambo _ . He couldn’t stand the trilling clarinet, as it’d been skipping for about two minutes before he went up to change.

Kylo Ren, on the other hand, was perfectly fine remaining where he was. He wore nothing but a pair of white linen pants, his massive body taking up almost all of the chaise he was draped across. Sweat occasionally would trickle down between his ribs, making him shudder as the fan’s air fell across the wet skin. His hair fell over the arm of the chaise, a small black curtain that had to be away from his neck, lest Hux have to deal with his incessant complaining.

_ Do I Love You? _ starts to play on the old record player, crackling from years of operating in the humidity. Hux finds himself wondering how this became their summer routine. It was almost a fast; they would wake long before first light to take care of any housework, because once the sun came up, there was no way they could work without risking their health.

Hux peeks from under his arm at the record player as it skips. The heat must be warping the record. It’s always played fine. The heatwave hasn’t broken yet, and shows no signs of doing so. The lightest of breezes creeps in through the open window, white curtains fluttering lazily. The radio has been nothing but hourly updates on the triple-digit heat reports, and advisories to stay inside, in the shade.

Worse yet, the drought warning has kept them from doing things like take a 12-hour long shower starting at sunrise and ending only when hypothermia had begun to set in.

“Why don’t you play?” Kylo mumbles, his voice the same volume as the man singing  _ I believe, I believe… _

“I don’t feel like moving until it’s at least 95 degrees,” Hux says without looking. “The piano needs to stay in the basement until the weather won’t warp the wood, like the porch.” It had started to squeak last night when they were making dinner.

“So we go to the basement, you can play that thing you’ve been working on for me.”

“I don’t want to play anything right now, let alone that sleazy sonata.” It’s true enough. Hux has been on a jazzy kick, since running away from school with Kylo. From New York all the way down to Georgia, nothing in their truck but countless records and half-written compositions. Luckily the house they bought with next year’s intended tuition had furniture and all the windows were intact. “I’ll play you something else tonight.”

Hux makes money at the local bar as the pianist. He knows every song a person could be known to sing, and Kylo has been his vocalist since they met freshman year. His voice is nowhere near the whining slides of the day’s music, but instead some kind of refreshing bass, thick and entrancing. Hux fell in love the moment he heard him speak. Kylo fell in love at a handshake.

They doze off in the day, getting up from their couches only to replace the record or to drink more lukewarm water. That breeze from before comes back, tickling the sides of Hux’ shoulders. He doesn’t move, because he knows Kylo’s fingertips are a hairs’ breadth from his own. They both agreed they wouldn’t touch one another in the daytime. There was too much a risk they were being watched, and right now it was just too damned hot for anything they may have wanted to do.

The breezes start to pick up again once the sun begins to set. Their song starts to play on the record, and Hux skips over it just for now. There’s a time and place to listen to that song. Not in the middle of the day.

Kylo starts on dinner and Hux looks through the records, trying to find one for tonight. The floor squeaks underfoot in front of the record shelf, which makes him scowl at his bare feet. They’d have to fix that soon. Nothing a hammer and nail couldn’t repair.

They share a few beers over dinner, quiet as they listen to the wind through the Georgia pines. The colors in the kitchen start to change rapidly as the sun sets. They flick on the lights in the house that they need, which is normally just the kitchen, living room, and the basement. The music is loud enough to hear from at least a mile out.

After getting work done (hammering that damned squeaking porch and the spot in front of the records), they wash up for the night. Hux is about to go down to the basement to play the song he promised Kylo, but he’s caught around the wrist and spun back into the living room. They move together, flipping off the lights as they go until the house is only illuminated by the moonlight, nothing but the music around them.

Kylo drags him out to the moon-drenched porch, and wraps him in his arms, now that they’re both cool enough to touch one another. Hux smiles easily, no longer exhausted by the day. Kylo had timed this perfectly. Their song is just starting to play, the swell of violins echoing through the open windows and doorway.

The solo clarinet takes the helm as they sway back and forth, hands in hands and heads on shoulders.

_ For you, for me, forevermore _

_ It’s bound to be forevermore _

_ It’s plain to see we found by finding each other _

_ The love we waited for… _

_ I’m yours, you’re mine, and in our hearts _

_ The happy ending starts _ …

They’re quiet as they listen to their song. Kylo sings the words in Hux’ ear, and when the song fades into the next, he presses a kiss to the top of his shoulder.

In the moonlight, like this, they dream of when they will dance in the sun.


End file.
